A/N (I recommend reading this): I'm going to MAKE THIS CLEAR. Just like I mention on my bio page about every other fanfiction I done: I DON'T OWN THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIAN SERIES or AND THE KANE CHRONICLES OR IT'S CHARACTERS as the rights goes to Rick Riordan. Also I suggest you guys start paying attention to the Author notes and my warnings that I left on EVERY chapter of EVERY story.

Sorry if this chapter is too much like the book.

This is a The Tales of version of the Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles crossover and takes place after 'The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus part of the series. So if you haven't read them yet read before reading this story as stuff that happened in them will be mentioned:

The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Early Adventures
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Lightning Thief
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Sea of Monsters
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Titan's Curse
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Magical Labyrinth
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Stolen Chariot
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Sword of Hades
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Bronze Dragon
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Last Olympian
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Staff of Hermes
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Quest for Buford
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Son of Sobek
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Staff of Serapis
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Crown of Ptolemy

Also if you haven't got the chance feel free to read:

The Tales of Classical Mythology

A crossover with The Tales of series with my dictionary on Greek/Roman Mythology where The Tales of Percy Jackson tells his version of stories behind famous names in Greek and Roman Mythology.

And if you are a fan of Stephen King:

The Tales of the Heroes of the Stand

Which is basically a crossover of The Tales of series with one of Stephen King's best novels The Stand.

Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.

Rhea Might as Well Been Living in the 1960s Her Entire Immortal Life

My head must have tasted like Wagyu beef.

The lion kept licking the side of my face, making my hair stickier and wetter. Strangely I started feeling better, as though my head was healing even faster. Lion saliva had curative properties. I guess I should have known that being a god of healing, but you will have to excuse me if I have not done trial-and-error experiments with the drool of every single animal.

I sat up and faced the Titan queen.

Rhea leaned against the side of a VW safari van painted with swirling black frond designs like those on her dress. I seemed to recall that the black fern was one of Rhea's symbols, but I could not remember why. Among the gods, Rhea had always been something of a mystery. Even Zeus, who knew her best, did not often speak of her.

Her turret crown circled her brow like a glittering railroad track. When she looked down at me, her tinted glasses changed from orange to purple. A macramé belt cinched her waist and on a chain around her neck hung her brass peace symbol.

She smiled. "Glad you're awake. I was worried, man."

I really wished people would stop calling me man. "Why are you… Where have you been all these centuries?"

"Upstate." She scratched her lion's ears. "After Woodstock, I stuck around, started a pottery studio."

"You… what?"

She tilted her head. "Was that last week or last millennium? I've lost track."

"I—I believe you're describing the 1960s. That was last century."

"Oh, bummer." Rhea sighed. "I get mixed up after so many years."

"I sympathize."

"After I left Kronos… well, that man was so square, you could cut yourself on his corners, you know what I mean? He was the ultimate 1950s dad—wanted us to be Ozzie and Harriet or Lucy and Ricky or something."

"He—he swallowed his children alive."

"Yeah." Rhea brushed her hair from her face. "That was some bad karma. Anyway, I left him. Back then divorce was not cool. You just did not do it. But me, I burned my apodesmos and got liberated. I raised Zeus in a commune with a bunch of naiads and kouretes. Lot of wheat germ and nectar. The kid grew up with a strong Aquarian vibe."

I was sure Rhea was misremembering her centuries, but I thought it would be impolite to keep pointing that out.

"You remind me of Iris," I said. "She went organic vegan several decades ago."

Rhea made a face—just a ripple of disapproval before regaining her karmic balance. "Iris is a good soul. I dig her. But you know, these younger goddesses, they were not around to fight the revolution. They do not get what it was like when your old man was eating your children and you could not get a real job and the Titan chauvinists just wanted you to stay home and cook, clean, and have more Olympian babies. And speaking of Iris…"

Rhea touched her forehead. "Wait, were we speaking of Iris? Or did I just have a flashback?"

"I honestly don't know."

"Oh, I remember now. She is a messenger of the gods, right? Along with Hermes and that other groovy liberated chick… Joan of Arc?"

"Er, I'm not sure about that last one."

"Well, anyway, the communication lines are down, man. Nothing works. Rainbow messages, flying scrolls, Hermes Express… it's all going haywire."

"We know this. But we don't know why."

"It's them. The Man. Big Brother. The suits. The imperators. They're doing it."

I had been hoping she would say something else: giants, Titans, ancient killing machines, aliens. I would have rather tangled with Tartarus or Ouranos or Primordial Chaos itself. I had hoped Pete the geyser misunderstood what his brother told him about the imperator in the ants' nest.

Now that I had confirmation, I wanted to steal Rhea's safari van and drive to some commune far, far upstate.

"Triumvirate Holdings," I said.

"Yeah," Rhea agreed. "That's their new military-industrial complex. It's bumming me out in a big way."

The lion stopped licking my face. "How is that possible? How have they come back?"

"They never went away," Rhea said. "They did it to themselves, you know. Wanted to make themselves gods. That never works out well. Ever since the old days they have been hiding out, influencing history from behind the curtains. They are stuck in a kind of twilight life. They can't die; they can't really live."

"But how could we not know about this?" I demanded. "We are gods!"

Rhea's laugh reminded me of a piglet with asthma. "Apollo, Grandson, beautiful child… Has being a god ever stopped someone from being stupid?"

She had a point. Not about me personally, of course, but the stories I could tell you about the other Olympians…

"The emperors of Rome." I tried to come to terms with the idea. "They can't all be immortal."

"No," Rhea said. "Just the worse of them up to Diocletian. After Constantine got himself baptize the need to be immortal died out with future emperors."

Well, that was reassuring. I remember hating Constantine for ending the sacrifices and worship to us gods in the Roman Empire for Christian beliefs. But now I realized he may have prevented more emperors from becoming immortal.

"But the most notorious before him—they live in human memory, man. That is what keeps them alive. Same as us, really. They are tied to the course of Western civilization, even though that whole concept is imperialist Eurocentric propaganda, man. I like my guru would well you—"

"Rhea"—I put my hands against my temples as a headache started forming (and I doubt it's from my head injury earlier)— "can we stick to one problem at a time?"

"Yeah, okay. I didn't mean to blow your mind."

"But how can they affect our lines of communication? How can they be so powerful?"

"They've had centuries, Apollo. Centuries. All that time, plotting and making war, building up their capitalist empire, waiting for this moment when you are mortal, when the Oracles are vulnerable for a hostile takeover. It is just evil. They have no chill whatsoever."

"I thought that was more modern term."

"Evil?"

"No. Chill. Never mind. The Beast… he is the leader?"

"Afraid so. He is twisted as the others, but he is the smartest and most stable—in a sociopathic homicidal way. You know who he is—who he was, right?"

Unfortunately, I did. I remember where I had seen his smirking ugly face. I could hear his nasal voice echoing through the arena, ordering the execution of hundreds while the crowds cheered. I wanted to ask Rhea who his two compatriots were in the Triumvirate, but I decided I could not bear the information at present. None of the options were good and knowing their names might bring me more despair than I could handle.

"It's true, then," I said. "The other Oracles still exist. The emperors hold them all?"

"They're working on it. They do not have your harpy friend who memorized the Sibylline books. But they somehow got their hands on the original source," Rhea said. I got the strange feeling she was not talking about the books themselves, which does not make me feel any easier. "But Python has Delphi—that's the biggest problem. But you will not have the strength to take him head-on. You must pry their fingers off the minor Oracles first, loosen their power. You also must make sure they do not get their hands on the Harpy either. If she has memorized the Sibylline books, they will be after her. Once you secure her safety and the other oracles are freed, you can face Python. To do any of that, you need a new source of prophecy for this camp—an Oracle that is older and independent."

"Dodona," I said. "Your whispering grove."

"Right on," Rhea said. "I thought the grove was gone forever. But then—I do not know how—the oak trees regrew themselves in the heart of these woods. You have to find the grove and protect it."

"I'm working on that. But my friend Meg—"

"Yeah. You had some setbacks. One of which was leaving that son of Hecate behind. You will need his magic to secure the grove. But even with him there are always of setback, Apollo. When Lizzy Stanton and I hosted the first women's rights convention in Woodstock—"

"I think you mean Seneca Falls?"

Rhea frowned. "Wasn't that in the '60s?"

"The 40s," I said. "The 1840s, if memory serves."

"So… Jimi Hendrix wasn't there?"

"Doubtful."

Rhea fiddled with her peace symbol. "Then who set that guitar on fire? Ah, never mind. The point is you must persevere. Sometimes change takes centuries."

"Except that I'm mortal now," I said. "I don't have centuries."

"But you have willpower," Rhea said. "You have mortal drive and urgency. Those things the gods often lack."

At her side, her lion roared.

"I've gotta split," Rhea said. "If the imperators track me down—bad scene man. I have been off the grid too long. I am not going to get sucked into that patriarchal institutional oppression again. Just find Dodona. That's your first trial."

"And if the Beast finds the grove first?"

"Oh, he's already found the gates, but he'll never get through them without you and the girl."

"I—I don't understand."

"That's cool. Just breathe. Find your center. Enlightenment has to come from within."

It was very much like a line I would have given my worshippers. I was tempted to choke Rhea with her macramé belt, but I doubted I would have the strength. Also, she had two lions. "But what do I do? How do I save Meg?

"First, get healed. Rest up. Recruit Hecate's boy. The Beast needs you and the girl to open the gates, but you need Hecate's boy to fight his forces. Tell him I call upon his help. He should be fine if I wish it. I agree with his beliefs."

"He thinks the Olympians—including your children—are tyrants," I said.

Rhea shrugged. "Can't change what you kid or descendants become, man. Even when they do things you are against. All you can do is love them and hope for the better or that next generation be better."

I got the feeling she was also talking about Octavian and the Beast when she said that.

"As for how you two save Meg is up to you. The journey is greater than the destination, you know?"

She held out her hand. Draped on her fingers was a set of wind chimes—a collection of hollow brass tubes and medallions engraved with ancient Greek and Cretan symbols. "Hang these in the largest ancient oak. That will help you focus the voices of the Oracle. If you get a prophecy, groovy. It will only be the beginning, but without Dodona, nothing else will be possible. The emperors will suffocate our future and divide up the world. Only when you have defeated Python can you reclaim your rightful place on Olympus. My kid, Zeus… he has this whole 'tough love' disciplinarian hang-up, you dig? He done things I disapprove, but he is still a better than what his old man ever was or could have been. Take back Delphi is the only way you're going to get on his good side."

"I—I was afraid you would say that."

"There's one other thing," she warned. "The Beast is planning attack on your camp. I do not know what it is, but it is going to be big. Like, even worse than napalm. You have to warn your friends."

The nearest lion nudged me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and allowed him to pull me to my feet. I was still exhausted but not from overuse of my powers, but from fright. For the first time, I understood the trials that awaited me. I knew the enemies I must face. I would need more than wind chimes and enlightenment. I would need a miracle. And as a god, I can tell you that those are never distributed lightly.

"Good luck, Apollo." The Titan queen placed the wind chimes in my hands. "I've got to check my kiln before my pots crack. Keep on trucking and save those trees!"

The woods dissolved. I found myself standing in the central green at Camp Half-Blood, face-to-face with Chiara Benvenuti, who jumped back in alarm. "Apollo?"

I smiled. "Hey, girl." My eyes rolled up in my head and, for the second time that week, I charmingly passed out in front of her."

A/N: Sorry if the changes I made from what Rhea said isn't hippie like. I didn't grow up in the 1960s and the closest decade hippie talk I got to base off by is Hippie Characters from 'That's the 70s Show' and that over shot the 60s by a decade. Well at least the show had characters that looked old enough that it's possible they were hippies in the sixties too. There's American Dad hippie characters too, but compare to the hippie characters in That's the 70s Show, they're more modern, so I went with 'That's the 70s Show'

Anyways, if there's anyone that take offense to that because of possible sterotypical misunderstanding about hippies of the 60s or 70s I'm sorry, but like I said, I'm not a hippie nor did I grew up in the 60s so I have no idea how to make my changes authentic to hippies back then.

Also I hope none of you mind putting a stop on candidates of Immortal Roman Emperors at Diocletian, but I figured since the Roman Empire basically was Christianize when Constantine was Baptise, any emperor after Constantine to the fall of the Roman Empire would no longer be candidate for Triumvirate.